The US has been through 14 recessions since World War II. Looking back on them there are several important lessons to learn, regarding business sales revenues. Business owners and CEOs should learn that unemployment is a lagging not leading indicator. Look closely at your industry’s revenue numbers. Sometimes the turnaround comes sooner than you think. Proven many times, the companies who are pro-active in a recession reaps much, much more sales when the recession begins to turnaround.

Being pro-active in a recession is hard but how does the old saying go: When the times get tough, the tough get going.

In these challenging times sales are more difficult to build. Here are two tips that have worked for my clients: 

Tip # 1 - Focus selling efforts on most profitable items in your inventory. Talk with customers who buy these and discuss ways you can better fulfill their needs and your sales. You may have to bundle more than one thing together to give a ‘bargin’ price without having to cut your price or profits. Ask, listen and then speak to your customer. 

Tip # 2 - Give your sales team assessments that tell you and them where they need to improve in order to be a better sales person. Nobody but nobody is perfect. In trying times you as the owner need to retain your BEST sales people and eliminate the poor performers. There is no time to “train” especially when there are so many great sales people unemployed.